


Please Cite Your Sources

by Accetric (Chiclets)



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Humor, No I'm lying, Self Help Books, Team Bonding, What am I doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 17:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1034184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiclets/pseuds/Accetric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An attempt to promote team building and self help ends how ideas usually do for the Decepticons. Horribly wrong and out of control. As always Starscream and his devious ways uses the chaos to his advantage. Really though, Soundwave is just glad to have survived. There were reasons that the Decepticons were the way they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Cite Your Sources

At the end of it all, some argued that they were left off worse than when the whole _thing_ began. Soundwave wasn’t entirely sure on the effects of Megatron’s idea on all of the Decepticons. For some it really did improve themselves and their relations to others. Still yet, with others, well, some refused to talk to their teammates and ignored them. Collectively as a whole, however, the words _“team building”_ and _“self help”_ struck fear into them at a circuit deep level.

It began, some argued, after Megatron had been suplexed by Optimus Prime, and had been left still and frozen on the ground while most of the Decepticons that had been around the area dissolved into laughter.

Soundwave personally thought it began after that.

Starscream thought that this was just another reason to try his luck at offlining Megatron.

A few of the Decepticons thought it was because of how they had been growing more and more restless on Earth. Any discipline they had previously was dissolved beyond recognition.

No matter what reason, the results were arguably the worse thing to happen to the Decepticons since the most devastating battle on Cybertron. Exaggeration aside, one hundred percent of the troops thought they were definitely being laughed at by Primus. Maybe Unicron, actually. That was still up for debate.

The devastating effects of Megatron’s terrible, not too good, bad idea? Soundwave himself had crashed a couple times, something he wasn’t proud of at all. Starscream had gone off in a tangent with a plan that Soundwave was ninety percent sure he was making up as he went. Seriously, who thought of spreading propaganda through _self help books?_ Starscream did apparently.  A good third of their faction were suffering from effects of getting overcharged in a grand ‘ _Frag It All’_ party that the Constructicons had thrown. They similarly had painted over their Decepticon symbols in favor of a different symbol. 

Of those were Thundercracker who had seemingly abandoned his Trine in favor of blocking out the world and its craziness. Naturally, Starscream was less than please, but the blue seeker had taken Skywarp with him. Not even his own trine would go along with his plans this time around. Thundercracker seemed to enjoy this new third faction though, but he still ended up hearing Starscream talk to him about how his plan was going. He seemed determined to soak up whatever semblance of a different faction there was in the mean time though. A few had been holed up with him watching ‘ _As the Kitchen Sinks’_ the last time Soundwave had sent a cassette to check on them.

Several other mechs had break downs. Have you ever seen a Triple-Changer throw his designated data pad down a hallway while all but crying? Blitzwing was most likely the catalyst for the ‘ _Frag It All’_ party. He had sobbed into Hook’s shoulder about evil data pads.

Any long lasting effects were yet to be seen. Soundwave hoped that there would not be any, but with the assorted mechs there was always a chance.

All of the Deceptions still firmly hated each other, however, so whatever team building Megatron had expected was nonexistent. That much was certain at least. Though for a few mechs, the results from the team building and self help data pads only caused more problems for themselves and team mates.

Later on, Soundwave would realize that self help books really didn't help. They should have taken that insight from the little inhabitants of Earth at least.

Reflector could not be found at all in the following days from the fallout, even though they had searched through most of The Nemesis in search of him. Whatever data pad he had received must have had something to do with his disappearance. When Lazerbeak had returned from an outing on land, she had brought back with her footage of Reflector sitting contently in a meadow taking pictures. He had taken a piece of advice from his self help data pad, and had gone out to relax with an activity he enjoyed.

Of course, it also happened that upon further investigation of his data pad later on, it was revealed that it was actually an attempt by Starscream to get rid of a Decepticon he felt he had no use for. The only piece of worthwhile advice had to come from Starscream in the end. When Reflector had stumbled back to base feeling better than he had in millennia, no one really had the spark to tell him it was because Starscream really just wanted him gone.

Hey, they were Decepticons, but they had standards. Starscream excluded, and Swindle, and actually never mind.

The Stunticons were holed up and were refusing to leave the safety of their room. They hadn't enjoyed having Megatron use them as an example of what he had called an exercise in patience. Soundwave shook his helm just thinking about it. That so called exercise had ended with Drag Strip passed out on the floor of the Rec Room and Dead End bent over him reciting a commendation and farewell over his still frame. Breakdown had been screaming and backing up away from Dead End completely terrified of his team mate. Motormaster, in a surprising display of not being violent, was only yelling at Wildrider as the smaller mech sped around the room.

Frenzy for all his worth was actually quite shaken. When Soundwave had taken him aside to speak with him, the committal that Dead End had started to say near the end of the episode was downright creepy.

Though to be honest to see a blank faced Dead End over Drag Strip, who was still very much alive, saying, "We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of eternal death." _was_ completely unnerving.

Between all of the insanity being spread around the base, Soundwave was alone as he tried to preserve what normalcy he could with his cassettes. Little Ratbat had no idea why so many mechs where upset, and it usually ended up with him staying inside Soundwave’s quarters or in his docking bay. Lazerbeak, Ravage, and Buzzsaw were all very much tired from running around to report to Soundwave all that they saw.

Soundwave sighed as he sat down. He scrolled through some of the warnings cause by collateral damage to the Nemesis from the past week tiredly. There had been so much madness going on that he had even had to rely on third party information, something he hadn’t thought possible in the small group of mechs. This was not so, as he had even received information from Ravage one day from a second hand story that Swindle of all mechs told of what had happened to the Coneheads when they had broken down.

That must not have been pretty for whoever had to clean up. The entire Rec Room, which had been nearly completely abandoned at the time, had been a complete mess. They had found them all piled onto each other claiming how much they would miss Dirge if he died. To be honest no one was completely sure if they had really had a breakdown or if they had actually tried bonding with each other. No one really wanted to know.

Soundwave shook his helm. He was glad that it was all over. His work was stacked to the roof for him already, and another week of attempted help and bonding would have left them in shambles. Nothing but scorch marks upon the floor.

He really needed to make sure that Megatron never tried to do this again. It just wasn’t worth it. Their leader had single handedly demolished their ranks with one yelled sentence. 


End file.
